New ISO-80, ISO-125 & ISO-160 Values?

Today I worked on the ISO values of the camera. The camera's lowest ISO is "LOW" (=100) but I read a few words that this is only a pushed ISO200.
Nevertheless I created a few new values which are in between those two.
I took a few pictures with the values 80, 100(not LOW), 125 and 160. The problem is: I am not sure if that changed anything in the real picture. The EXIF metadata could be wrong.

Since my experience as a photographer is not huge I ask for your opinion: Do you think the ISO values (screenshots & raw files) are effective and represent the right metadata tag?

How to enable

I created a custom firmware with some edited binary integer arrays. Put the camera in manual (M) mode and connect to a phone via WiFi. In the ISO dial there is a empty button witch enables the Auto-ISO mode even though the normal Auto-ISO mode is not available in manual mode. Then the ISO values go below 200 and down to a minimum of 80.

Android Olympus Image Share Screenshot

Photos:

RAW Files:

Link: http://gdriv.es/rawiso

 

Download firmware for the E-M10

Link for all E-M10 firmware downloads: http://lightsnowdev.blogspot.com/2014/08/olympus-om-d-e-m10-custom-firmware.html

Blog Updates & RSS Feed

Blog Updates

New updates will be on top of this blog from now on. This way you can see every update of the last week with one click. Expect a linklist with a short description for easy access.
I try to update my blog once a day.

RSS Feed

I also enabled a RSS feed if you want to follow me more easily:
http://lightsnowdev.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

Firmware Control: Tool to Flash any Firmware

This is outdated.
Please have a look here if you want to up/downgrade your camera.

This method is outdated:

I rewrote the Firmware Control tool to make it easier to use and compatible for everyone.
With this program you can flash any firmware of the Olympus OM-D and PEN and Stylus series. It makes it more easy to upgrade your firmware and allows people to separate the download and flash process. There are many cameras being supported. If your's is not, tell me and I will add support for it as well.

Features

• Flash/install any firmware
• Flash official and unofficial updates/firmwares
• Upgrade and downgrade your firmware - no matter which version you are coming from
• Download any official firmware ever published for your camera
 

Screenshots:

How to use the program?

First choose your camera, then select your firmware and download it. Put the firmware in a folder called "DCOLYMP" on your SD-Card and start your camera while pressing the OK button.
Wait until the red LED is blinking on/off. This means the process is finished and you can restart your camera. Finished!

Any risks? 

This might void your warranty. If you flash an official update from Olympus you are most likely on the save side. But there is no guarantee I can give you.
If you flash a custom firmware you are never on the save side. Think about what you are doing and always consider that this can break your camera.

 

Download links - Version 1.0a

//links not working any more. see information on top
Link 1.0a : Firmware Control 1.0.zip
Link 0.5   : Firmware Control 0.5.zip
Link 0.4   : Firmware Control 0.4d.zip
Link 0.3   : http://gdriv.es/olyfirmwarecontrol03
Link 0.2   : http://gdriv.es/olyfirmwarecontrol02
Link 0.1   : http://gdriv.es/olyfirmwarecontrol01

Version History

Version 0.5 //02.10.14
    rewrote the program
    support for E-P2 and E-P3
    supports SD-Card method, which is easier to use
Version 0.5 //08.09.14
    fixed a bug with the E-M1
Version 0.4d //20.08.14
    support for E-P5, E-PL3, E-PL5, E-PM2 & STYLUS 1
    Verison d - more bug fixes
Version 0.3 //13.08.14
    support for official updates
    new design - more easy to use
Version 0.2 //07.08.14
    support for E-M5
    support for E-M1 
Version 0.1 //06.08.14
    initial release
    flash any firmware
    support for E-M10

Help

If you are having trouble editing the host file please got to the path "C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc" and open the file "hosts" with any text editor. Now remove those 2 lines:
127.0.0.1     dl01.olympus-imaging.com
127.0.0.1     fw01.olympus-imaging.com
If you want to access the Olympus server again, please remove the lines. This is necessary for version 1.0 to able to download a firmware.

 

Future plans

• Mac Version
• More in-app help/information
• List of available (modified) firmware versions

Tell me your thoughts and wishes in the comments!
If you need support for other cameras let me know.

Olympus OM-D E-M10 Custom Firmware

//Update 15.08.14

 

3 custom firmwares for the E-M10!

Try it yourself! Read the description of the firmware you want to flash. You will have to decide for yourself what you want and therefore which file to flash.You can always go back to the original firmware if you want by using my Firmware Control Tool.

How to flash a firmware

Extract the file and put it in a folder called "DCOLYMP" on your SD-Card.
Check if the firmware file is inside the folder and put the SD-Card into your camera. Now start the camera while pushing the OK button. The red LED will go on for about 1 minute. If it's flashing on/off you know, that the process is finished. You can restart your camera now and you're all done.

 

Download

Firmware 1: http://goo.gl/SenwLB
    Changed the INFO screen for the firmware button as seen here.
    This firmware is save and has been tested.


Firmware 2: http://goo.gl/UN226d
    This firmware will do nothing but changing the internal name of the camera.
    This means the exif files you get are marked as "E-M5".
    Why should you do this?
    Because Windows does support the Raw files of the E-M5. You can preview it in the explorer
    and ind the standard image viewer application. Also if you have an older Photshop version like me
    you are now able to edit the raw files.

Firmware 3: http://gdurl.com/H8XV/download
    This firmware enables you to select ISO values of 80, 125 and 160 via the Olympus Image Share
    App. For more information check this post out.
    This firmware is save and has been tested.



//Original post date: 08.08.14
//Update 1: 10.08.14
//Update 2: 15.08.14
//Update 3: 22.08.14

First modified Olympus OM-D E-M10 Firmware!

I managed to manipulate the firmware.
Well it's probably less exiting in reality:

I managed to change a little string. (oh boy, I was scared to break my camera)

The information text af the firmware button was modified.

That's the lowest modification level I could think of. And it worked very well.
But I am not sure what's next. I might try a bigger string or a more core level string next. Little footsteps only! You would not want to break your gear either. ;)

You can download the firmware here: http://lightsnowdev.blogspot.com/2014/08/olympus-om-d-e-m10-custom-firmware.html

Olympus OM-D E-M10 Firmware Hack

Firmware Documents

//Update: 07.08.14

Because I only own an E-M10 this is all about the new OM-D camera. But the procedure for hacking an Olympus firmware is the same for all 3 OM-D cameras.

Firmware documentation can be found here:
http://dl01.olympus-imaging.com/ww/ud2/ENU/0001/1130/index01a.html

Firmware Update Document Olympus OM-D E-M10

This shows the internal "id" code for the E-M10: 1130. Every Olympus camera has one. For example E-M1's id is 1090 and E-M5's 0970.

The system behind the link: http://dl01.olympus-imaging.com/ww/ud2/[language]/0001/[camera id]/index[firmware number]a.html
Where the firmware number is an integer: Ver. 1.0= 1; Ver 1.1= 2; etc.

Firmware Bin

I searched for older firmware hacks for the OM-D series and found some people who downloaded and decrypted one for the E-M5: http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/2789/olympus-hacks/p2
On this page is a link to the binary firmware file of the E-M5 which is being downloaded by the "Olympus Digital Camera Updater" to update the firmware of your Olympus camera.

So I wrote an app to search(with the new id of the E-M10) the Olympus website for similar pages to get the firmware for the E-M10.
The link I found for the newest Version 1.1: http://dl01.olympus-imaging.com/OLYMPUS_MASTER/FIRMWARES/0001/1130/OLY_E_113_1104_0000_0000.BIN

Binary Decryption

So as described at "person-view.com" I extracted all the files with the "oly_fw_tools" and got 64 files (incl. resources). Now that is where the fun part takes place: Reverse engineering.
So far I only had time to look at the strings inside the language and main code files and can say: The camera does not support 25fps video. Or in other words: Olympus did not wrote any code for that yet.
Years ago there where some rumors that the E-M5 does support 60/120fps, but as confirmed by others that settings is only for the internal view finder, which indeed has support for up to 240fps.

So to get further: I decrypted the main_code.bin (binary file) of the firmware with the command:
"oly_fw_manip.exe --analyze --in OLY_E_113_1104_0000_0000.dissected\00.main-code-01.bin --out .\OLY_E_113_1104_0000_0000.analysis"
What you get is the file "00.main-code-01.addr_strings_all.txt" which contains a more readable version of all strings you would also find in the HEX file. Encrypted and progressed code is being ignored, resulting in a "fun to search through" file.

some findings: (there are many)

• The E-M10 supports Bluetooth, which i did not know before. Apparently there is equipment which uses Bluetooth, but can we use it also for our purposes? The strings show that a "OLYMPUS BlueSDK a4" is used to connect to the PENPEL.
• 0x00DF39C8:WIFI SHELL //can we execute commands over WiFi?
• 0x000D5CC4:USF debugging shell Version 1.10 //The debugging shell Olympus made?
• System running: uITRON 
• Broadcom BCM%04x 802.11 Wireless Controller with Broadcom SDPCMD CDC driver
• MAC address belongs to FUJITSU LIMITED

After I looked up almost the whole document I have to admit, that it's not as useful as I thought. It is basically a giant debug value text. It contains all kinds of debug strings for different situations like USB-, WiFi and SD-Card-debugging. If we get a shell to work, the possibilities are almost endless. Nevertheless it's also useful to get some cgi comands. Those are the commands send by the Olympus Image Share" App.

Well let's go on with the hex file.
(it's a time consuming process and the whole analysis takes time, so be patient :) )

Flashing the new Firmware

Flashing a manipulated firmware is not much of a problem. There is a pyhon script available to emulate the Olympus server. With this, a new (hacked) firmware can be flashed just like a normal one, no matter what version is installed.

The Server running with a python script. It detects the firmware as a file for the E-M10

It is German, but you can see, that the new firmware is detected as Version 1.2

This is not a manipulated firmware yet. It's just to test the update process before I risk anything else.
Result: It works like a charm! We can flash any firmware - check.

Next Step: scsi commands

Next up are commands you send by a usb wire to the camera. Because we have literally tons of debug commands I try to establish a debug connection.

//Original Publish Date: 29.07.14
//Update 1: 01.08.14
//Update 2: 04.08.14
//Update 3: 05.08.14

Olympus Commander Windows

If you want a perfect and fully working application to control your Olympus camera via WiFi you should try the "Camera Control" tool here:
https://rebs.biz/cc/en/index.htm
This is being developed by Andreas Rebs and is not related to any of my work.

The following program is developed by me:
I stopped any development on this because the other program is just perfect.

This program for windows allows you control your Olympus OM-D camera right from your PC. I also try to include new features like a 1/8000 shutter speed.


Features:

• take photos //done
• review last shot & others //done
• set exposure/ISO/mode/dial Mode/etc. //done
• exposure  1/8000 //in progress. OIShare protocol allows that, but the camera refuses that value
• live view //planned
• Maybe a live view where you are still able to use the camera

I looked at the protocol between the "Olympus Image Share" application and reversed engineered the buttons. Olympus made no effort to secure the connection. The commands are send in clear text and can be read easily with any sniffer program:

SmartSniff - traffic between the Olympus App and the camera

It took me like an of hour to develop a program which is now able to execute the commands captured in the sniffer program: Sometimes it was quite difficult to time the commands if you want to make more calls in a short period of time.
But the goal is more or less to extend the functionality of the Olympus App: I want to fully control my camera without any limitations! As Olympus is not willing to give us that freedom, we have to create it ourself. :)

Current development state:

InDev. Can take pictures an immediately show it.

//Original Post: 30.07.14
//Update 09.08.14

Hidden Test Mode - Olympus OMD

As I was searching for some existing information about the camera and its predecessors, I found the following web page: http://www.biofos.com/cornucop/hidden.html

Several debug modes were published in the past years, but this one is new for the OM-D series.

As I pushed the wrong buttons, the camera showed a screen only the E-series cameras had. I did not know that you can also access it on an OM-D. That mode is called "Test" and allows to edit two values. Prg. contains 256 values and item 501.

Follow these steps to enter the Test mode:

1. Shut down camera
2. Start the camera with the "MENU" button pushed
3. When the screen is fully loaded release it and push it again to access the menu
4. go down to the 5th setting (basic camera settings)
5. go to the Display brightness setting (push the right trigger one time)
6. push "INFO" and then "MENU" to access the general debug menu
7. now push in order: up - down - left - right - Shutter - OK

Why is this useful?

At the source's web page is a test with a custom ISO value. They managed to manipulate the top/low ISO values. Can we also enable a ISO-50 for example? Also I'm pretty sure, that the E-M10 supports shutter values below 1/4000. Maybe it can be unlocked that way. Other attempts to get information about the values: http://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/1601363 (6th post).

The Problem

All this is nice and maybe very useful, but: How do we shut down the "Test" app (I call it an App, because its labeled as a "Gui App" in the source code) and carry on with shooting without shutting down the camera? How do we see any changes?

Tip: If you push "OK" and therefore go back to the screen where "OLYMPUS E-M10" is written you can push and hold the "Review" button and shut down your camera. If you start the camera now while pushing the "Review" button again (Release it after a few seconds), the settings in the hidden menu remain intact. But I haven't seen any other effective setting to change.

more debug: http://lightsnowdev.blogspot.com/2014/09/new-color-and-setup-debug-menu.html